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French Revolution/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is in his kitchen, cutting himself a slice of cake. Moby comes in, dressed as Marie Antoinette, who was Queen of France at the time of the French Revolution. He is fanning himself with a hand-held fan. MOBY: Beep. Moby points to the cake Tim is slicing. TIM: You're going to let me eat cake? Hey, I don't need your permission. Moby reaches over and takes the cake from Tim. He eats the entire cake. Then, he smiles dreamily, with cake crumbs on his mouth. TIM: Touché. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, how did the French Revolution start? From, Chepe. Well, the French Revolution was a pretty tumultuous time. It lasted from about 1789 to about 1804, when Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor of France. A timeline uses a French flag to denote the year 1789, a guillotine to denote the year 1794, and an image of Napoleon to denote the year 1804. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Actually, there were two major causes. First off, times were changing. In the 18th century, France was still an absolute monarchy. All state power lay with the king, the nobles, and the clergy. These folks made up only five percent of the population. But they didn't pay taxes and controlled pretty much everything. Ordinary people weren't exactly thrilled with this arrangement. An image shows a French king, a French noble, and a French priest. TIM: But the 18th century eventually became known as the Age of Enlightenment. It was a period marked by lots of social change! Great thinkers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote about the importance of freedom and human rights. Advances in science and mathematics led political philosophers to approach the business of government in a rational, scientific way. An image shows Voltaire and Rousseau. TIM: And the American Revolution proved to a lot of people that democracy could work! Images show the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitutional Convention, Founders discussing a document, and the American flag. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right, the other major reason for the revolution was financial. France had some serious money problems. The king had borrowed a ton of money to fight against England during the American Revolution. An image shows French and English soldiers facing off on a battlefield. TIM: By 1788, the treasury was empty, and bad weather had caused widespread food shortages. An animation shows a box of coins becoming empty, representing an emptied treasury. TIM: The cities were overcrowded with angry, starving people. It was like the whole country was ready to blow. In order to calm the public, King Louis XVI called an assembly of the different classes of French people. An image shows King Louis XVI. TIM: Nobles, clergy, and commoners. Each one of these groups was called an estate, and the assembly was called the Estates-General. The Estates-General met in Versailles in May of 1789, with the purpose of drafting a new tax policy. An animation shows the silhouettes, then images, of a French noble, a French priest, and an ordinary French citizen. The people are then shown to be in Versailles for the meeting. TIM: That's when things really started heating up. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, the commoners weren't just a bunch of peasants! The representatives from the third estate were mostly well-educated lawyers. And the third estate decided it wasn't going to listen to the king anymore! An image shows three identical lawyers standing at the meeting place at Versailles. TIM: It declared itself a National Assembly, and members of the other two estates began joining up. A banner appears over the three lawyers. Text on the banner reads: National Assembly. A nobleman and a priest join the lawyers. TIM: In June, all the members of the assembly swore they would stay together until they wrote a new constitution for France. This was called the Tennis Court Oath, since it happened on an indoor tennis court! An image shows a man speaking before a crowd. TIM: Meanwhile, in the streets of Paris, people were getting pretty excited. There were demonstrations, riots, and looting, so the king called out troops to keep the peace. An image shows unrest in the streets of Paris. Fire burns in the background while French soldiers face off with armed citizens on the street. TIM: In response, the people stormed the Bastille, a large prison and fortress that served as a powerful symbol of the monarchy. An image shows a crowd of angry peasants approaching the Bastille ready to fight. TIM: Once this happened, the king realized he couldn't stop what was going on. He pulled back his troops and acknowledged that he no longer had power over his subjects. All authority now rested with the National Assembly. Soon the special privileges enjoyed by the nobles and clergy were abolished, and the absolute monarchy was gone, too. An image of a priest, lawyers, and a nobleman represents the National Assembly. MOBY: Beep. TIM: No, not exactly. Things kind of degenerated from there. Different factions started forming in the National Assembly, and the revolutionaries started fighting amongst themselves. In seventeen ninety-three, a group of extremists took over and started executing everyone who disagreed with them. Many of their opponents, including Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, were beheaded with a device called the guillotine. This was called the Reign of Terror. An animation shows Marie Antoinette standing next to a guillotine. The guillotine has a large blade in a wooden frame. The blade falls from the top to the bottom of the frame. TIM: Meanwhile, several countries, including Austria, Great Britain, and Prussia, declared war on France. An animated map of western Europe shows the countries that declared war on France. TIM: In order to calm the riots and political turmoil, the French army started gaining a lot of power. An image shows a large group of French soldiers. TIM: This led to Napoleon Bonaparte, an army general, declaring himself dictator in 1799 and emperor in 1804. An animation shows Napoleon Bonaparte slowly riding a horse through a town square. TIM: And that's the French Revolution. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well no, actually. I mean, aside from the outfit, you don't look a thing like Marie Antoinette. Moby removes his head and drops it to the floor. TIM: I, I stand corrected. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts